Jimmy Wales Net Worth

Jimmy Wales Net Worth History

Jimmy Wales is a successful internet entrepreneur. He is best known as one of the founders and promoters of the non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and also the founder and president of the for-profit web hosting company, Wikia since 2004. He however stepped down from his position in 2009. Hi very first internet business, Bomis was launched in 1996, which provided entertaining stories and adult content. It is through this website that he got the capital to finance his project, Nupedia, which preceded Wiki. He was the chairman of Wikipedia from June 2003 to October 2006 after which he started serving as the chairman emeritus of wikipedia. In 2012, Wales started creating awareness in the government on potential open access initiatives, in a bid to have a government-funded research reach the taxpayers at no cost. He is a member of advisory boards in academic institutions and research institutes. He is a very uotspoken atheist.

About Jimmy Wales

Wales was born in a middle class caucasian family. His father ran a grocery store while his mother was a manager of a one-room private school. In his early education, he had a major interest in reading than just physical games, contrary to his peers. He spent most of his time reading his parents’ collection of encyclopedias which gave him the obssessive idea of creating an online encyclopedia that anyone woul access an edit. He later said that his childhood education was key to his imagination. He developed an interest in the internet since its early days and his very fist venture, Bornis, unfortunately did not succeed. With major sacrifice from his parents, he attended the very expensive University-preparatory Randolph School. He later received his degree in finance from Auburn University. He then enrolled at the University of Alabama for his PhD but later left for a masters degree at Indiana University. In his graduate school, Wales formed an open-source software movement where programmers met and collaborated.

He has had major achievements in his time. For instance, he was on the Time 100’s list of ‘Scientists and Thinkers’ in 2006 and also ‘The 100 Most Influential People in the World’, he was also ranked number 12 in the Forbes’ list, ‘The Web Celebs 25’. He has received major awards like the Monaco Media Prize, the Leornardo European Corporate Learning Award, the 2009 Nokia Foundation annual award, the 2008 Global Brand Icon of the Year Award and many more.

After his two unsuccessful marriages to Pamela Green and Christine Rohan, he finally managed to settle with his wife Kate Garvey in 2012. The two have one child, Kira. For a person in such a level as his, earning just $1 million is too little. Jimmy however says that it is his passion that keeps him in the business. He says that his focus is to first crete something which is captivating and focus on the business side later.